HB Arnett's 801 372 - 0819 hbarnett@fiber.net 1391 West 800 South - Orem, Utah 84058 Vol. 33, Issue 38 - May 6, 2013 Click <http://cougarclicks.com/product/Order-Cougar-Sportsline?ID=3173> Here To Order Or Renew Your Subscriptions Reveling and Revealing The past few weeks have been a time of reveling for BYU fans. What's not to revel in with two Cougar teams competing for national championships in Rugby and Men's Volleyball? Ziggy Ansah and his first round selection by the Detroit Lions is a feel good BYU story if there ever was one. We should let the reveling sink in for a few more days or weeks, and then examine the revealing nature of these BYU athletic stories. Sorry for jumping the gun on the revealing nature of the news, but here is my take on what I have seen the last few weeks and during the past BYU athletic year. Coaches at all levels come in all shapes, sizes and abilities. Some are bad. Some are good and some are better. BYU has coaches employed in their athletic department. They come in all shapes, sizes and abilities. Some are bad. Some are good and some are better. It would be nice to have a good coach in charge of a particular program, but based on what I observed recently and during the Cougar athletic year about to be completed, it is better to have good players than good coaches. Three BYU sports in particular validate my point, in my opinion. After watching BYU Rugby win the Varsity Cup against perennial power Cal, it was obvious that BYU has the player personnel and talent to play against the best in the nation. While BYU Volleyball's national title aspirations didn't turn out as well as Rugby, it was also obvious that they had elite level college players. This past fall, BYU's women's soccer showed that they were loaded with top tier talent in their run to the elite eight of the NCAA playoffs. It was also painfully obvious after about twenty minutes in the game against North Carolina in Provo that as good as BYU's talent was, North Carolina had better. The Tar Heels went on to win the national title. My point being is that coaching is needed and nice, but good national caliber players are essential to playing on the national stage for any sport. I back up that assertion with the recently completed NFL draft. I think it proves my point perfectly. As good as the Ziggy Ansah draft story is, it was a BYU sidebar story and nothing else. The real story of the draft, in my opinion, was the correlation between the numbers of players drafted from the top teams in the nation. Here are the final top ten rankings for football teams for the 2012 and 2011 seasons with the number of drafted players from those teams. 2012 1. Alabama..9 2. Oregon.5 3. Ohio State.3 4. Notre Dame. 5. Georgia.8 6. Texas A&M.5 7. Stanford.3 8. South Carolina.7 9. Florida.8 10. Florida State.11 2011 1. Alabama.8 2. LSU.5 3. Oklahoma State.3 4. Arkansas.4 5. Boise State.6 6. Stanford.4 7. South Carolina.6 8. Michigan.3 9. Michigan State.6 Here are the draft numbers and names by season for BYU. Also included are the season records for each year. 2012.1.Ziggy Ansah (8-5) 2011.0.(10-3) 2010.0.(7-6) 2009.1.Dennis Pitta.(11-2) 2008.2. Austin Collie, Fui Vakapuna.(10-3) 2007.1.Bryan Kehl.(11-2) 2006.1.John Beck.(11-2) 2005.1.Todd Watkins.(6-6) 2004.3.Brady Poppinga, Scott Young, Shaun Nua.(5-6) 2003.1.Colby Bockwoldt.(4-8) 2002.2.Dustin Rykert, Spencer Nead.(5-7) 2001.5.Doug Jolley, Ryan Denney, Brandon Doman, Luke Staley, Brett Keisel.(12-2) 2000.2.Owen Pochman, Tevita Ofahengue.(6-6) We should include Harvey Unga in the list. He was a supplemental pick by the Chicago Bears after missing his senior season for Honor Code issues. In my opinion, BYU's best team in this time frame was the 2001 team which also had the most NFL draft picks on the roster. I recognize that Bronco Mendenhall has turned in multiple double digit win seasons and also finished in the top 25 multiple times in his coaching tenure, but his continuing mantra of BYU having the goal of winning a national championship and being a big factor on the national college football stage is not justified based on the correlation between NFL draft picks and teams that finish in the top ten annually. Mendenhall is a good coach. He is just not justified in continuing to say his goal is to win a national championship in football until he can get the draft picks to back it up. This is not meant to say that BYU football in particular and BYU sports in general can't be very enjoyable to follow and root for with or without draft picks. They are very enjoyable, just like regional theatre is enjoyable, but it is still not a Broadway production. When it comes to Rugby and Men's Volleyball, BYU has the caliber of athletes to compete at the top levels. They are not there yet in football and basketball. There is always hope and supposition for BYU that the NFL draft picks will be just around the corner. Until proven otherwise, I don't buy it. BYU could have one or two picks a year for the next five years, but despite double digit win seasons, until the Cougars consistently put three or more guys in the NFL draft, playing at the highest level with the big boys is not going to happen. Meanwhile, I am going to buy tickets to Les Miserables for the touring show now playing in Salt Lake and continue to enjoy BYU football. Both, while not Broadway or Big Time quality, will still be very enjoyable. If you are counting names and numbers for BYU in the NFL draft for the last decade, it comes up short on quarterbacks, but especially short on offensive linemen. That is not a good combination to have if you want to move the football in the air and on the ground. Ziggy Is Ghana Be Rich It couldn't happen to a nicer and more deserving guy. That would be Ezekial Ansah, the BYU defensive end, who was selected as the 5th pick overall in the NFL draft by the Detroit Lions. If you can read, watch TV or browse the internet, you know Ansah's story. It is spectacular and special and also well chronicled. He has gone from crash to cash in just three short years. From a crash course in how to put on pads to the cash of a huge signing bonus makes a great story. As good as the story is, Ansah, the person, is better. He has represented himself, BYU and the Church extremely well in his whirlwind tour with the Detroit and national media. Now all he has to do is show he can play NFL football. Even if he can't do that, he can still cash his checks for the next three years. I'm betting on him not only cashing checks, but cashing in as one of the better pass rushing defensive ends in the NFL before his career is done. BYU Rugby Takes Varsity Cup BYU defeated Cal 27-24 last Saturday afternoon on South Field in Provo to take home the Varsity Cup national championship in Rugby. As a guy who doesn't know a lot about rugby, I do know this. The game was physical, compelling and exciting. While my knowledge of the rules of rugby is very rudimental, I do know that when two evenly matched teams are going up against each other, it is a lot like regular football. It is about field position, turnovers and the kicking game. The team that wins those battles wins the game. That held true for BYU against Cal. BYU was able to maintain field position, came close to Cal in turnovers and had the superior kicking game. You spell superior J-o-n-n-y L-i-n-e-h-a-n. The freshman from New Zealand accounted for 22 of BYU's 27 points. None were bigger than his 17-meter drop kick with time expiring to seal the deal and keep the match from going into overtime. Cal entered the contest undefeated and played well. There is a reason the Golden Bears and BYU have dominated collegiate rugby for years. Bronco Mendenhall already has taken two rugby players to play football in Paul Lasike and Ray Forrester. He wasn't in the crowd of close to 5,000 who watched the game, but he should have been there. He would have seen a kicker that he could also use on the football team. Granted the ball is different, but the leg strength, accuracy and technique of Linehan was impressive. There would be a major transition from rugby to football, but based on the dismal showing of BYU kickers over the past few season, it seems like it would be worth a try (rugby pun intended) to see if Linehan could make the transition. Speaking of foot fetishes and failings, BYUtv has come up short again in its failure to televise BYU rugby. Granted it is club sport, but a sport that is known world wide would seem to be a good fit for BYUtv International and Global, if not regular BYUtv. It's not like they were showing more riveting programming by passing on a national championship game between the Cougars and Cal. Instead, they showed a BYU softball doubleheader against St. Mary's. The Lady Cougars won the doubleheader, but did so in front of a whopping 362 fans. That paled in comparison to the thousands that were watching BYU defeat Cal in person and the many others who would have opted for rugby over softball on BYUtv on this particular Saturday afternoon. Thrill of Victory and Agony of Defeat If you are old enough, you may remember the intro for the old ABC sports program, Wide World of Sports. The opening included the line, "The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat". That pretty wells sums up BYU Men's Volleyball's last week of play. The Cougars experienced the thrill of capturing the regular season championship of MPSF play. They followed up on that accomplishment by eking out come-from-behind heart and gut wrenching wins over Hawaii and UCLA in MPSP post season playoff action. That was culminated with a win over Long Beach State for the post season title. A few days later, the Cougars began their NCAA national title dreams with a three-set sweep of Penn State in Los Angeles. That wrapped up the thrill of victory for BYU. The agony of defeat was delivered by UC Irvine in a crushing 3-game loss to the Anteaters in the championship match. The agony was even more ironic in the fact that BYU had defeated UCI both times they faced the Anteaters in regular season MPSF play. BYU finished their year with a 26-5 record. BYU BASEBALL STILL IN HUNT FOR WCC POST SEASON TOURNAMENT Mike Littlewood, the first year BYU baseball coach, set a goal of getting his Cougars into the four-team WCC post season tournament later this month. As of today, he is on schedule to reach that goal. The Cougars are 10-8 in conference play and 24-18 overall after taking two of three games last week in Los Angeles against LMU. BYU has six league games remaining in conference play. All are at home in Provo against San Francisco and St. Mary's. Here are the current WCC baseball standings as of Monday. 2013 WCC Baseball Standings Team WCC PCT Overall Gonzaga^ <http://www.gozags.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=26400&SPID=90843> 18-6 .750 31-14-1 San Francisco <http://usfdons.com/index.aspx?tab=baseball&path=baseball> 14-7 .667 29-19 San <http://usdtoreros.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/usd-m-basebl-body.html> Diego 12-9 .571 28-20 BYU <http://byucougars.com/home/m-baseball> 10-8 .556 24-18 Pepperdine <http://www.pepperdinesports.com/sports/m-basebl/pepp-m-basebl-body.html> 9-9 .500 23-20 Saint <http://www.smcgaels.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=21400&SPID=12533> Mary's 9-9 .500 18-29 Loyola <http://www.lmulions.com/sports/m-basebl/loyo-m-basebl-body.html> Marymount 10-11 .476 22-25 Portland <http://portlandpilots.com/index.aspx?path=baseball> 8-10 .444 16-28 Santa Clara <http://www.santaclarabroncos.com/sports/m-basebl/index> 0-21 .000 10-35 ^2013 WCC regular season champions Fluff and Stuff The last day for spring signings in basketball is next week, May 15. Dave Rose and his staff are still trying to find at least one more player to sign in the next week. They came up empty on Juco Sai Tummala, the 6-7 wing from Salt Lake Community College. He opted for Arizona State. They also missed on 6-9 Tanner Lacona. He will sign with St. Louis. In case you missed it, Raul Delgado, the juco guard brought in by Rose last year, has left the program and will transfer to Metro State in Denver. In softball, the Lady Cougars clinched the Pacific Coast Softball Conference championship last week with a four game sweep of St. Mary's. BYU will have one more regular season game against Utah on Saturday in Provo. They are currently 32-23 on the year and 19-5 in league play. After Utah, they will now await an opponent in NCAA action set for regional play May 15-18. Because of the Cougars' ordinary season and week conference affiliation, look for the Cougars to be matched up against a ranked team. Television Timetable BYU vs. San Francisco (Baseball) Friday, May 10 at Provo First Pitch: 6:00 pm Mountain Time TV: BYUtv BYU vs. San Francisco (Baseball) Saturday, May 11 at Provo First Pitch: 1:00 pm Mountain Time TV: BYUtv BYU vs. St. Mary's (Baseball) Thursday, May 16 at Provo First Pitch: 6:00 pm Mountain Time TV: BYUtv BYU vs. St. Mary's (Baseball) Friday, May 17 at Provo First Pitch: 6:00 pm Mountain Time TV: BYUtv BYU vs. St. Mary's (Baseball) Saturday, May 18 at Provo First Pitch: 1:00 pm Mountain Time TV: BYUtv
